Interests

First language acquisition, the linguistic structure of signed languages, the acquisition of ASL as a first language

Education

University of Chicago, B. A. in anthropology, 1970-73.
Washington University, St. Louis, M.A. in anthropology, 1973-75.
University of California, San Diego, Ph. D. in linguistics, 1976-82.
Postdoctoral fellow in developmental psychology, Dept. of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1982-84.
Postdoctoral fellow in cognitive psychology, Dept. of Psychology, Stanford University, 1984-86.

Recent Courses

LIN 306 Introduction to the Study of Language
LIN 350 Signed Languages/Signing Communities
LIN 373 Child Language

LIN 393 The Linguistics of Signed Languages
LIN 393 Language Acquisition

Teaching Award

Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award for 2004-2005, University of Texas at Austin.

University Service

Associate Vice-President for Research, UT Austin, 1996-1999.
Director, American Sign Language program, Department of Linguistics, 2000-present.

Selected Publications

Newport, Elissa L., & Meier, Richard P. 1985. The acquisition of American Sign Language. In: The Crosslinguistic Study of Language Acquisition. Volume 1: The Data, ed. by Dan I. Slobin. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, pp. 881-938.

Morgan, James L., Meier, Richard P., & Newport, Elissa L. 1987. Structural packaging in the input to language learning: Contributions of intonational and morphological marking of phrases to the acquisition of language. Cognitive Psychology 19:498-550.

Meier, Richard P. 1987. Elicited imitation of verb agreement in American Sign Language: Iconically or morphologically determined? Journal of Memory and Language 26:362-376.

Meier, Richard P. 1990. Person deixis in American Sign Language. In: Susan D. Fischer & Patricia Siple (eds.), Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research. Vol. 1: Linguistics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 175-190.

Meier, Richard P., & Newport, Elissa L. 1990. Out of the hands of babes: On a possible sign advantage in language acquisition. Language 66:1-23.

Meier, Richard P. 1991. Language acquisition by deaf children. American Scientist 79:60-70.

Meier, Richard P., McGarvin, Lynn, Zakia, Renée A. E., & Willerman, Raquel. 1997. Silent mandibular oscillations in vocal babbling. Phonetica 54: 153-171.

Cheek, Adrianne, Cormier, Kearsy, Repp, Ann, & Meier, Richard P. 2001. Prelinguistic gesture predicts mastery and error in the production of first signs. Language 77:292-323.

Meier, Richard P. 2002. The acquisition of verb agreement: pointing out arguments for the linguistic status of agreement in signed languages. In: Gary Morgan & Bencie Woll (eds.), Directions in Sign Language Acquisition. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp.115-141.

Meier, Richard P., Cormier, Kearsy, & Quinto-Pozos, David G. (eds.). 2002. Modality and Structure in Signed and Spoken Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Meier, Richard P. 2006. The form of early signs: Explaining signing children’s articulatory development. In: Brenda Schick, Marc Marschark, & Patricia E. Spencer (eds.), Advances in the Sign Language Development of Deaf Children. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 202-230.

Contact Info

Department of Linguistics
The University of Texas at Austin
1 University Station B5100
Austin, TX 78712-0198

(512) 471-9031 (voice)
(512) 471-4340 (fax)
rmeier at mail dot utexas dot edu